Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Via Cadore 48, Monza (MI) 20052, Italy.
Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jul 30;105(5):058102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.058102.
Current research on the origin of life aims at finding the simplest entity that can undergo spontaneous Darwinian evolution toward increasing replication efficiency. Here I consider some of the models of self-replicating molecular systems, and I show that they exhibit a distinct feature, namely, an infinity of stationary states forming a continuous curve; i.e., they are only marginally stable. I show that, in marginally stable chemical systems, thermodynamic fluctuations induce a drift directed toward increasing replication efficiency. This drift represents a form of evolution, taking place slowly, cooperatively, in macroscopic volumes of water.
目前，生命起源的研究旨在寻找最简单的实体，使其能够自发地进行达尔文式进化，以提高复制效率。在这里，我考虑了一些自我复制分子系统的模型，并表明它们具有一个明显的特征，即形成连续曲线的无限个定态；也就是说，它们只是勉强稳定的。我表明，在勉强稳定的化学系统中，热力学涨落会引起复制效率逐渐增加的漂移。这种漂移代表了一种进化形式，它在宏观体积的水中缓慢、协同地发生。
